Back Then
by To Kingdom Come
Summary: Someone who knows all the answers, cannot be trusted, and there are too many reasons not to trust people nowadays.
1. Strangers

_A/N: Well, here it is. Chapter one of my new chapter fanfic. If I don't get lots of good feedback, I won't write any more of it until I've finished Mission Wutai._

_Oh, and just one thing; Sakura isn't an OC. See if you can guess what her real name is._

"Den!" Screamed the young woman, spinning when she heard a gunshot, to see her best friend lurch sideways and stumble over.

She started running back towards him, but he waved his one hand at her, struggling back to his feet. "Just get there! Save us all! I'll hold them off!"

The woman looked torn for a few seconds, then nodded and sprinted on through the darkened military facility.

She would have to go back on her own now. They hadn't planned for this…

Chapter One: Strangers 

_--They're everywhere these days--_

It was almost closing time when the woman walked into the bar. She pushed through the crowds of slightly drunken customers to the bar, and shook her heavy leather hood further down over her face.

"Hey, you want anything Hon?" asked the bartender.

"What? Oh, um… coke please…"

"Coming right up…" the woman grabbed a large glass from under the counter and filled it. She was a well-built woman, with blue eyes and blond hair: the perfect waitress.

"That'll be twelve Gil please."

"Thank you." Said the hooded woman, handing over a twenty Gil note, and waiting patiently for her change.

When the bartender handed it over, she asked, "This is the bar owned by Tifa Lockheart, right?"

"Yes, it is. Why? Are you looking for her?"

"Yes. Can I please speak to her?"

"Sure thing Hon, I'll just go get her." She hurried into a backroom and up a set of stairs. A few minutes later Tifa appeared. She was exactly as the woman remembered her, with her long black hair and kind red brown eyes. She had to restrain herself from running over and giving her a hug.

"Yes?" she asked, looking slightly puzzled.

"Um… Hallo Tifa… I know you don't know who I am, but I need to talk to you and Cloud…"

Tifa's eyes narrowed slightly in mistrust, and her head tilted to one side. "Well… ok… Follow me." She opened the small divider that lead to behind the counter, and the woman walked through.

"Up here." The woman followed Tifa up a narrow flight of stairs that she knew lead to the living quarters.

Suddenly she felt worried. What if Cloud was up there? Or… Denzel? She shook her head to clear it, then hurried a bit to catch up.

"Cloud!" Tifa yelled.

"What?" came the voice from the next room.

"We've got a guest! Get out here!"

"Alright…" There was the scraping sound of a chair being pushed back from a desk and a tall man with blond spiky hair emerged from a room at the far end of the corridor. "Who is it?"

"I dunno, but apparently she needs to talk to us."

"Oh. Ok then. So who are you?" Cloud directed his gaze on the woman, who had to stop herself from shrinking back.

"My name is… Uh…"

The woman was saved from answering when a small boy ran out of another room yelling, "Marlene! What are you doing back- Huh?" He looked around. "But she's here!"

Tifa frowned. She knew that Denzel had always had a strange ability to tell where Marlene was, but Marlene was staying with a friend for the night.

"She'll be back tomorrow Denzel." Said Cloud, ruffling the boy's hair. "You never told us your name? He then said, turning his attention back to the woman.

She said the first thing that came into her head. "Sakura Kinomoto."

"Isn't that the name of a character from that show the kids watch in the mornings?" Tifa asked Cloud quietly.

"No, it's not." Said Sakura.

Denzel frowned and opened his mouth to say something, but Sakura put a finger to her lips to tell him to be quiet. His frown deepened for a few seconds, then he nodded.

"Well, I'll go make some tea, you two talk." Said Tifa suddenly.

Cloud was about to interrogate Sakura further, when Denzel tugged on his hand. "Cloud, I've got a bad feeling! Something bad is gonna happen to Marlene!"

"Don't worry, Marlene will be fine for now." Said Sakura suddenly. "We, however, should get out of here."

"What? Why? What do you know?" Cloud demanded.

"I just remembered, tonight's the night of the Midgar Bombing."

"The _WHAT?_"

"Midgar bombing. If I recall, the Seventh Heaven is one of the targets, so I'd get out of here if I were you."

Cloud and Tifa looked at each other.

"Listen, you don't have to believe me, but just go outside and somewhere safe, and if nothing happens, so what? You can feel a bit embarrassed that you came. If you stay, on the other hand, and I was right, you can feel really stupid all you want back in the lifestream."

"Well… ok…" Tifa said.

"Tifa!"

"No, she's right, I wouldn't want to risk it. I'll go downstairs and say we're closing early. You get some important stuff packed…" Tifa picked up her Premium Heart gloves off the shelf on the way out.

Cloud stared after her then turned back to glare and Sakura. "You'd better be telling the truth. And how would you know about something like this anyway?"

"Never mind that, you heard the lady! Move!" Sakura said over her shoulder on her way to the door.

"Hey, where are you going?"

"I'm getting out of here, you're not the only ones I've gotta warn. You've got about…" The woman looked down at her watch, "Twelve and a half minutes." And with that she disappeared out the door and down the stairs.

Cloud sighed and looked down at Denzel. "You heard the women. Go find some of yours and Marlene's stuff that you really can't leave behind."

oOo

Reeve jerked awake at the loud knocking on his office door. "Hnn?" He asked intelligently.

The door was opened by a young woman wearing a long sky blue turtle neck sweater that came down to her knees, over black trousers and heavy looking steel capped combat boots. She had a heavy leather hood and rain cloak fastened round her neck, but the hood was pushed back to reveal a soft face surrounded by dark brown, almost black hair that was tied back in a ponytail.

"Hey, who are you?" he asked, still half asleep. He looked back at his computer screen and groaned when he saw he'd just typed three pages of random letters with his face.

"My name is Sakura, I am here to evacuate you." Said the woman.

Reeve jerked his head back up to look at her again, then squinted. "I don't recognize you…"

"No, I expect you don't…"

"How did you get past security?"

"Easy. You might want to get someone else to plan out the routines…"

Reeve had stood up by now, was slowly inching towards the door, which Sakura had moved away from.

"I'd rather you didn't try to get help, ok? I'm not here to hurt you!" Said the woman, frowning at him. "I just want you to evacuate the building. I happen to know that it's one of the five targets of the bombing, along with the Seventh Heaven, the Cemetery, Aerith's Church, and the records building."

Reeve visible paled. "The Church? The records building? _The Seventh Heaven_?"

"Yeah."

"Why should I believe you?"

"You don't have to, just leave the building for the night and take the Turks and other security forces with you for protection, get everyone out."

Reeve narrowed his eyes at her. "You know, you look familiar…"

"Yeah, I'm related to someone you know… sort of…"

"Oh…"

"Ok, I've gotta go elsewhere and warn a few more people, you make your mind up… but please leave, I'd miss you guys."

The man's eyes widened. There had been genuine concern in her voice. Slowly, he walked back to his desk and picked up the intercom. "You go warn other people, I'll get these ones out." He said to her, and watched her face brake into a relieved smile.

"Thank you." She said, before turning and running out and down the stairs, then called over her shoulder, "You've got about thirteen minutes till they get here!"

Reeve nodded then flipped the intercom switch on. "This is Reeve, we have a report of a terrorist attack. I am evacuating the building and I'm calling all Turks and security to me. Leave the building in and orderly fashion, and head for a bunker or safe house. I repeat…"

oOo

No one went near Aerith's Church anymore, and no one lived in or near the cemetery, so now all she needed to do was warn the workers at the record building. There shouldn't be many, so it wouldn't take too long.

She climbed onto her motorbike that she had parked near the ShinRa building and tore off up the street hoping that she would make it in time.

As she rounded the last corner and picked up speed along the last stretch of road, she heard the first bomb drop, the whistling as it fell through the air, then the thunderous booming when it hit it's target; the cemetery.

She shuddered at the memory of _the half-decomposed bodies scattered all over the street, fragments of gravestones lying where they'd fell._

_And the fragment she'd picked up. '-memory of Ifalna, beloved moth-'_

_She'd been sick that night, all over poor Cloud._

It wouldn't happen the same way this time though.

She skidded to a halt right outside the building, and ran in, right into the midst of a panicking crowd of workers. "Quiet!" she yelled, and the people stopped milling around trying to get a good view out the Windows and see what was going on.

"Everyone stay calm and leave this building! The fifth bomb is set to hit here. You have seven minutes! Get out-"

Her last words were drowned out by the whistling of the _next bomb. It would crash into the seventh heaven, killing Tifa and injuring Cloud and Denzel, Denzel so badly that his right hand and wrist had to be amputated, and many of the customers were-_

But not this time. This time she'd saved them. She'd done it.

Then she was swept off her feet by a tide of panicked people stampeding for the door.

"Hey! Watch the- Bike." Sakura watched as her bike was pushed over andtrampled repeatedly as people rushed for safety.

"Jerks!" She shouted after them. "I didn't know there were so many of them…" she muttered to herself, before kicking the remains of her bike and running after them.

She had reached the end of the street when the next bomb hit, at the ShinRa building, completely demolishing _the place Reeve and the Turks had been about ten minutes earlier, of the Turks only Tseng, Elena and a new recruit named Johan had survived, due to being off duty and not in the building at the time. Presedent Reeve of ShinRa's body was never found, thought to have been completely incinerated-_

Then shortly after that the next one fell, destroying the only place in Midgar where flowers would grow well, the _Church of the Ancient. Cloud had been devistaded. Loosing Tifa and his last link to Aerith on the same night-_

And then the last bomb fell on the records building, catching her in the shock wave even though she was a whole block away.

She staggered sideways and grabbed a lamp post for support.

Great, now she had to find everyone somewhere in the city, and without a bike too. Great, just _great_.

She muttered something unintelligible that she had learned off Captain Highwind before-

She jumped at the sound of a horn blaring behind her, and spun around.

It was a ShinRa patrol car, and it was pulling over.

She was about to make a run for it when she noticed who was in it.

She ran forwards, yelling, "Reno! Vaughn!"

They got out the car and frowned, and she remembered too late that they didn't know who she was.

"Are you 'Sakura'? asked Reno, twirling his EMR lazily. It was a scare tactic, she knew.

"Yeah, I am. I'm guessing that Reeve asked you to get me?"

"Well no, he didn't, in fact. He says that you tipped him off to the bombing, but we Turks thought, how would she know? So we're taking you in for questioning on the grounds that you are a suspected terrorist."

Sakura's mouth opened and closed a few times. "You're an idiot. Why would I tip you off if I wanted you dead?"

Reno grinned. "Yeah, that's what we wanted to know too. Vaughn, get her."

Vaughn was one of the new Turks, who had been recruited after Meteor, after Reeve had been made the new head of ShinRa, had been trained by Reno, Rude and Elena.

Tseng had survived the wound he had sustained from Sephiroth in the temple, but had retired from his post, because he never fully recovered. Now he was the Turk's 'advisor'.

And now Vaughn was closing in on her, telling her not to move.

Sakura frowned at him and muttered something else the Captain had taught her how to say, then been yelled at by Tifa…

He grabbed her hands and pulled them behind her back, tightening a set of handcuffs around her wrists.

"Good girl, decided to cooperate…" said Reno, then he pointed to the car with his EMR. "Get in."

Sakura _accidentally_ stood on Vaughn's foot on her way past, and climbed into the back seat as best as she could with her hands fastened behind her back.

Reno shut the door behind her and jumped in the driver's seat. "Hurry up rookie!" he yelled at Vaughn.

Vaughn grumbled something and climbed into the car too.

Reno pulled out onto the road again and grinned at Sakura in the rear view mirror. "So, ever been arrested before?"

"Yup, but not by the Turks. Whole new experience, simply wonderful."

"Aww, do I sense a hint of sarcasm in that comment?"

"Probably not, but there was some in there."

Reno scowled and stuck his tongue out at her.

"Reno, you're exactly as I remembered you- Uh."

"What was that?" he asked, suddenly serious again.

"Nothing."

"It didn't sound like nothing, it sounded like… Vaughn, what would you say she said?"

"Uh… something about remembering you." Said the young Turk.

"Yes, that's what I thought,although, I don't believe I've ever met _you_, Miss Sakura…"

"You have… just not since I was about… seven…" mumbled Sakura.

"Really…" said Reno thoughtfully. "So if you're about twenty now…"

"Twenty one."

"Yeah… so that would be…" Reno paused and counted on his fingers, "Fourteen years ago."

"Yeah… not really."

"Not really?"

"Yeah."

"Care to explain?"

"No."

Reno shrugged. "Suit yourself, but I'll keep asking."

"Fine. I wanna talk to Reeve."

"No can do sorry. See, Reeve doesn't seem to think you could possibly be a terrorist, and we want him safe, believe it or not."

"Fine. I wanna talk to Elena then. Or Tseng. Or Cloud."

"Maybe- Wait, why Cloud?"

"Because he knows… me…"

"Ok, whatever."

After about half an hour's drive, Reno suddenly skidded round a corner and ground to a halt. "We're here!" he said happily.

"Finally! Jeez, you need some driving lessons Reno!" Sakura moaned. She had been unable to hold on what with her hands tied behind her back, and was unable to fasten her seatbelt either, and had been knocked all over the place whenever Reno turned a corner too fast or hit a speed bump at twice the recommended speed.

"All ashore!" Reno chirped, ignoring Sakura's grumbling.

Sakura had to wait for Vaughn to open the door for her, and he helped her out.

"Thanks…" she muttered grudgingly. She knew Vaughn wasn't a bad person, but he was fiercely loyal to the Turks and Reeve, and did what he thought would protect or help them.

She was lead along a corridor towards a small black building made out of some sort of metal.

"This is our backup HQ, for emergencies just like this one. Made tough, so it won't be easily destroyed." Reno explained.

"You don't really think I'm a terrorist." Sakura said. It was a statement, not a question.

"What makes you think that?"

"You haven't searched me for a tracking beacon or communication device, and your telling me all this. It's pretty obvious."

Reno and Vaughn looked at each other. "Fair enough then," Reno admitted, "No, we don't, but I'd rather not take any chances."

Sakura grinned. "Wise decision. I'd hate anything to happen to any of you, so it's nice to know you're all being extra careful."

Reno and Vaughn didn't hear her, they were already wandering through the door, leaving her to follow.

She could always make a break for it now…

But she didn't want to be stuck with these bloody handcuffs until she could find some way of getting out of them, she thought as she stuck her foot in the door before it could close and shut her out.

"This way this way…" Reno called back in a sing song voice.

"I'd like to see you move this fast with your balance cut by half!" Sakura shouted after him.

Reno didn't seem to hear her, so she just hurried after him and Vaughn as fast as she could with her hands tied behind her back, and her balance therefore impaired.

The corridor was far longer than the inside of the building, and Sakura realized that they must have gone right through the wall and were walking along a secret passage.

Cool, she thought, absently.

Then she walked into someone.

Due to aforementioned lack of balance due to her hands being tied behind her back, she toppled backwards and landed heavily and painfully on her hands.

"Ohmygosh are you alright?" asked the panicked woman who she had crashed into.

"Yeah, thanks Blaine, I'm fine."

The woman stared. "H- how do you know my name?"

"Oh… uhm… We must have met somewhere before. Yeah."

Blaine, another of the new Turks, frowned, then shrugged. "Ok. Hurry up, I think Reno's waiting for you." She reached down and grabbed Sakura's arm to help her back up.

Sakura nodded her thanks and hurried on as best as she could.

Reno and Vaughn were waiting for her at the end of the passage impatiently. Well. Reno was waiting impatiently. Vaughn had endless patience.

"Come on, come on, through here!"

Sakura wrinkled her nose at him and kept up her slow but steady pace as she walked towards then through the door.

Reno and Vaughn followed her through, then Reno grabbed her arm. "Vaughn, gimme the key."

Vaughn frowned, but reluctantly handed over the key to the handcuffs.

When her hands were free, Sakura immediately started rubbing her hands together. "Oww… Those things are a pain!" She grumbled.

"Yeah, we know. This way. Now remember, we took the handcuffs off, but we're keeping a close eye on you, so don't try anything."

"Yeah yeah." Sakura said, still examining her sore wrists.

Vaughn opened a door on the right and the three entered the room. Reeve was in there, hunched over a computer, trying to keep his eyes open for long enough to finish whatever he was working on.

"Boss." Said Reno. "Is this her?"

"Yeah." Said Reeve, glancing up from the screen, looking back down, typing a bit longer, then looking back up again. "Hi Reno, Vaughn. Having a good day? No what am I saying, the ShinRa building was just blown up…"

"You need sleep." Said Reno, Vaughn and Sakura at the same time.

"No, I'm fine… I'll just finish this and get another cup of coffee… that should tide me over until…" He never got to finish his sentence, because at that point at which he slowly collapsed sideways and slumped onto the floor, fast asleep.

"Aww… Out like a light." Said Reno, dragging him over and onto a couch in the room.

oOo

_A/N: Well, tell me what you think. Really. I want reviews. They make me happy : )_

_Guess what Sakura's real name is? If you can't I will be very surprised._

_Til next time, Goodbye, readers!_


	2. Reunion

Barret stared at the TV. A spoonful of porridge hung in the air halfway to his mouth, and slowly dripped its contents back into the bowl. 

"Shit no…" He said hoarsely.

The reporter carried on. _"…Reports say that miraculously, only one person was killed in the bombing, an unfortunate man visiting his wife's grave when the bomb fell…"_

"So Marlene's alright then…" Barret sighed and sunk back into his chair, dumping his bowl on the floor, trying not to sob with relief. He didn't know what he would do if he lost her.

But he was going back down to Midgar anyway. Maybe they would need help with the clean up. And it was high time he spent more time with Marlene. This had made him realize that.

**Chapter Two: Reunion**

_-A happy and sad time-_

The _Sierra_ touched down in the charred remains of the Seventh heaven the next day. It was carrying Cid and Shera, of course, as well as Yuffie, Vincent and Barret, all of whom had called Cid within ten minutes of each other to tell him what had happened, been yelled at that he already knew, and asked for a ride.

The second they landed Barret hauled open the hatch and jumped out, running over to where Cloud, Tifa and Denzel were waiting to meet them. "Where is she? Where's Marlene?" He demanded.

"She stayed at Anna Loral's house last night, we thought it would be a good idea to leave her there until you got here. She doesn't know where the bombs were dropped yet, but I rang Mr. And Mrs. Loral to tell them we're alright." Cloud told him, just as Yuffie hopped out of the airship, staggering a bit and looking very green.

Vincent jumped out next and landed silently behind the young Ninja, grabbing her arm before she collapsed.

"Bit of turbulence." Cid explained, looking down through the hatch. A few seconds later Shera joined him and said, "Do you need us to collect anything for you? Like building materials?"

"No thanks." Cloud shook his head. "We're not going to rebuild the Seventh Heaven."

"Why not?" Barret asked.

"We're going to buy a smaller house in Kalm and live in there for a while, then set up a new bar there." Tifa explained. "I've wanted to relocate to Kalm for ages now, this was just a good jumpstart, I suppose. I'm glad no one was hurt…"

"Yeah, us too." Yuffie announced. She seemed to recover rapidly, and pulled her arm away from Vincent.

"So you want a ride down to Kalm then?"

"Not yet. We've still got to see how Reeve is doing, get Marlene… We're staying in Reeve and the Turk's underground bunker for a while, then heading down to Kalm."

"Ok. So why are we here then?" Cid asked his three passengers.

"To make sure they're alright you moron!" Barret said.

"You mean I've wasted all this fuel on a bloody social call?" Cid demanded, going slightly purple. "We could have jut brought the _Tiny Bronco II_!"

"Yup!" Yuffie said, grinning up at him.

The Captain muttered a few of the same words Sakura had used on the Turks and clumped back inside the ship. "Shera! Get me some goddamn tea!"

"Yes Captain…" Shera sighed. Her face disappeared from view also, her lab coat swishing behind her.

"Thank you Cid!" Yuffie called after them, not really expecting a reply.

oOo

Reeve slept for well over nine hours, and he woke up feeling much better. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, and he heard the voice of Reed, another new Turk, calling, "Reno Sir! He's awake!"

He looked around blearily to find that he was sitting on the couch in his office that Rude and Elena had moved into his office in the hopes that he would sleep more. Reed had probably been assigned to watch him and wait for him to regain consciousness.

If there was one thing Reed had that no one else did, it was endless patience. She'd probably spent the last few hours keeping an eye on him and sorting out paper work on his desk.

There was the sound of voices and footsteps coming down the corridor, and then Reno and Rude burst through the door, having a rather one-sided argument, as Reed quietly slipped out the office and went to do some work.

"Look, she's not a terrorist." Reno said loudly and irritably.

"I-" Rude started.

"And anyway, we're keeping an eye on her! It'll be fine!" Reno continued.

"Reno-"

If you're that worried, we'll put the handcuffs back on her."

"Reno!" Rude shouted, breaking his usual habit of being quiet and thoughtful.

"Yeah?"

"I never said I thought she was a terrorist! Where did you get that idea from?"

"Uh…" Reno went blank. "What were we talking about?"

"I'd rather like to know that too." Reeve interrupted them.

"Oh, well Rude here seems to think that Sakura is a terrorist, and that we shouldn't let her see you."

"I never said that goddamn it Reno!"

"Of course, now that he knows otherwise, he denies it…"

Rude sighed and turned to walk out the room. "I'm going to get her. She's still asleep."

"Ok, you do that then!" Reno chirped after him.

"You're a strange one Reno." Reeve muttered through his sleep fogged state.

"Yeah, on that note, so is this 'Sakura'. She knows things she shouldn't."

"I know. I think I've figured out who she really is."

"You have? Do tell."

Reeve smiled. "I think that you'll have to figure it out for yourself."

"Boss! You know I'm not THAT smart!" he complained.

"Maybe you won't have to be."

"Ah! Stop with the mysterious act! Tseng used to do that! It was soooo annoying!"

The man laughed quietly. "You'll get used to it. Now, am I going to be allowed to meet this terrorist of yours?"

"She right here boss." Said Rude, entering the office again, this time with a rather sleepy looking Sakura in tow.

"Hiya Reeve." She mumbled, trying to focus her eyes.

"Good morning Miss Sakura." Reeve said, instantly switching into Boss mode.

"G'mornin'…"

Reeve looked around and picked up a cup of god-knows-how-old coffee. "Here." He passed it to the woman. It may be ancient, but it was guaranteed to have you fully awake in seconds.

"Thanks." Sakura drank the whole cup in one mouthful. At first nothing happened, then she want pale. "I need a sink. I think I'm gonna be sick." She said it rather calmly, and Reno pointed out the door and across the corridor.

A few minutes later she was back, looking very much awake, and more than a bit annoyed. "What did you put in that? Are you trying to kill me?" She demanded of Reeve.

"No. It's normal coffee. It's what I drink. Except a bit older, I think."

"Older? As in, how much?"

"Uhm…" Reeve looked a bit uncomfortable. "I'm not sure, but one theory is that it was left on the desk by Rufus when he was here one time."

He watched as Sakura's face slowly stretched into a look of horror. "Oh… _ewwww_!" She yelled. "You really ARE trying to kill me!"

Rude cleared his throat before an argument could begin. "Sir, we have much to do today."

"Yeah, yeah, of course," Reeve said, looking a bit sheepish. "Well, um, Sakura… You wanted to speak to me?"

"Only after I was arrested."

Reno made a strange squawking noise, and Sakura guessed that Reeve wasn't supposed to know about that.

"Arrested?" Reeve's eyebrows rose, and he looked at Reno, who suddenly looked like he had to be somewhere else. "I hadn't heard anything about that."

Reno squirmed in his seat, and Rude looked over at him too. "Reno? What have you been up to?"

"Arresting people under suspicion of terrorism and breaking the speed limit?" Sakura supplied.

Reno shook his head and made frantic 'Shutupshutupshutup' motions with his hands.

Three pairs of eyes watched him intently. He sank into his huge armchair and glared at Sakura from the depths of the leather and foam cave.

While no one was watching, Sakura stuck her tongue out at him.

"We'll talk about this later." Reeve told him. "In the meantime, Sakura. What do you want us to do? Would you like to stay here in the bunker?"

"No, I wanna find some people."

"Who?"

"Well, Cloud and Tifa Strife…"

"Tifa Strife?" Reeve asked sharply.

Sakura suddenly took on the appearance of a rabbit in the headlights of an oncoming truck. Oh damn, I forgot, that wasn't for another couple of years! "Sorry, I meant Lockheart. I'm still a bit tired I think…"

Reeve's mouth twitched into a half smile. "I'm sure you are, how long did she sleep, Rude?"

"Three hours."

"Three hours? Out of the past nine?"

"A lot of time was spent arguing with Reno." Rude informed his boss.

"Ah. A very common passtime in the Turks, I hear."

Reno sunk a bit further into his chair cave.

"Well, I'll have Vaughn drive you to the place where Seventh Heaven used to be. I hear Cid and his airship are parked there.

Sakura gave a relieved smile. "Thanks."

oOo

Sakura slept for most of the half-hour drive, so Vaughn very kindly didn't ask her lots of questions or talk loudly like Reno would. He even restrained from turning on the radio.

When they arrived, he shook her and hissed, "Sakura! Wakey wakey!"

"Mffg?"

"We're here. Do you want me to go find Cloud or Tifa?"

"'Kay." She mumbled, shaking her head to try and wake herself up. It didn't work. Soon after Vaughn slammed the car door shut behind him, she fell back to sleep.

The next thing she knew, someone was knocking loudly on the window. It was Cloud. She pulled the door handle and almost fell out the car she was so tired.

She staggered a few feet, then regained her balance. "Hi." She said.

"Hallo." Said Cloud shortly. "This way."

Vaughn and Sakura followed after him to the airship, and Sakura stumbled up the steps that had been dropped out of the hatch finally. Vaughn didn't follow.

Sakura looked back at him, but he gave her a sheepish half smile and muttered that he'd better get back to work. "I'll be back later in the van to pick everyone up anyway." He then said.

"Ok, see you then."

Everyone had gathered on the bride of the _Sierra_ to meet Sakura. She looked around, looking a bit nervous suddenly.

She looked around as Cloud and Tifa introduced her, noting who had come. She almost smiled when she saw Vincent standing at the back of the bridge, furthest away from the window. He had always been a 'lurk in the back' type.

And Yuffie had come as well. So had the Captain and Shera, obviously.

And there, in one corner, sitting and looking out the window impatiently, was Barret Wallace. She fought down the urge to cry from happyness.

"Hallo? Are you listening to me?"

Sakura jerked out of her thoughts and looked round. "What? Sorry."

"I said," Cloud repeated irritably, "How did you know about the bombs?"

Sakura's mouth dropped open. She'd forgotten that she'd have to answer that question. She shrugged non-committally.

"Come on, you must have found out somewhere."

"Um. I did lots of research." She said. Well, it wasn't _exactly_ a lie. She had done lots of research. Just not the kind they would assume she meant.

"Huh." Cid grunted. "I don't believe you for one second, but I suppose you did help out, so you're forgiven. Just don't try anything."

Sakura smiled weakly at the Captain, "Thanks…" She mumbled, staring intently at her boots.

"So are you going to tell us your real name now?" Tifa asked.

"Uh…"

"We did some research too. We know that Sakura Kinomoto is a character from a kid's TV show. Cardcaptor, I believe."

"Oh."

"Well? Are you?"

Sakura's face went blank for a few seconds, and then she said, very firmly; "No."

Tifa frowned and went to say something, but Cloud shrugged. "Fair enough, I suppose, but I'm not so sure we can trust you."

Sakura gave a half shrug. "You don't have to."

There was a horrible silence as everyone watched her carefully, trying to figure out exactly what she meant by that.

oOo

The next few hours passed painfully slowly for Sakura. They would ask her questions, and she would either avoid them or give them vague answers that weren't really answers.

Finally Vaughn was back with a huge ShinRa van, and Sakura was first out the hatch.

Never had she been so glad to see the young Turk. He grinned at the large group as he jumped out of the driver's seat. He was trying to get his shoulder length black hair into a hair band, but he wasn't succeeding.

Sakura yelled "Shotgun!" And jumped onto the front seat, while everyone still exiting the airship ducked for cover, then realized what she meant.

Grumbling, they all scrambled into the back, Yuffie kicking up a fuss when she didn't get a window seat, until Vincent switched places with her when she told him she would puke in him instead of out the window.

"All aboard?" Vaughn asked.

"Where's Cid and Shera?" Tifa asked suddenly.

"They're staying on the _Sierra_." Cloud said.

"Huh. Typical." Yuffie said loudly "Antisocial old coot."

Vaughn was the only one who could see Sakura when she froze and narrowed her eyes.

He tactfully pretended he hadn't noticed.

It was another half-hour drive, but they didn't go back to the ShinRa bunker; they stopped in front of a large, fancy looking house with a carefully cared for garden.

"Hey, what are we doing here?" Yuffie demanded.

"This is Mr. and Mrs. Loral's house." Tifa explained. "We're picking up Marlene."

Despite being at the very back of the van, Barret was the first out.

oOo

It was a happy reunion. Sakura remembered it well.

Marlene was so happy to see her Papa again that she didn't even remember to say thank you to John and Leann Loral for letting her stay for the night.

She tore down the path, managing not to trample any of the flowers that overhung onto the footpath, and threw herself into her father's arms. "Papa!" She squealed. "I'm so happy you're back!"

She'd sat beside him on the way to the bunker, holding tightly onto his arm as if he might disappear if she let him go, and bombarded him with questions about what he'd been doing up in Corel.

He explained happily that he'd been looking for an oil field to replace the source of power they'd lost along with the threat to the world. As ofyet he had been unsuccessful, but they had found huge coal reserves which they were mining right now.

He had only just finished explaining by the time they got back to the bunker, and he moved on to telling them about some of the people he worked with as they walked into and along the dull metal corridor.

Another new Turk, a strange looking man with three green marks on the side of his face, and all his black hair spiking out on one side and flat on the other, met them at the door and introduced himself as Astenje.

He showed everyone round, and pointed out anything important, like the coffee machine, and, subsequently, the bathroom.

Then everyone crowded into Reeve's office. He was typing on his cranky old computer again, probably trying to sort out some paper work, like usual.

He started and looked up at the sound of the door slamming behind Cloud.

"Oh, hello everyone!" He said, hurriedly standing up, and managing to knock over his cup of coffee.

"Hi Reeve." Said Cloud, "What's going on? Are you going to rebuild the ShinRa building? Do you know who was responsible for the bombing?"

"Uh… No… and no." He turned to look at Sakura. "But you might ask her."

"Uhm…" Sakura shrank under their combined gaze.

"Well?" Cloud demanded.

"I do know… but… but you won't like the answer…"

"It doesn't matter. We have to know."

Sakura looked at each face in turn, each one was watching her, intently, waiting for her answer…

"No," she said at last, "You don't need to know. Not yet."

Cloud frowned and glared at her. "I hope you know I don't trust you."

"Yes. I do."

Suddenly everyone else went quiet, to see what would happen.

"I don't trust you one bit." Cloud continued, "You know too much, and you refuse to tell us HOW you know!"

"I would tell you how I knew if I though you'd believe me!" Sakura retaliated. She didn't want to argue with Cloud, so she swiveled round and left the room, leaving Cloud to mutter to himself.

"Cloud…" Tifa started, putting her hand on his arm.

"What?" He snapped.

"Uh- Maybe you should drop it… I- I don't think she's lying."

Cloud twitched and looked away. "I'm going to get some sleep. Reeve, where are our rooms?"

Reeve looked slightly uncomfortable. "Well, um, the bunker isn't extremely huge, so… well, there aren't that many rooms…"

"And?"

"Well…" The man mumbled something unintelligible, but it could have been, "You have to share a room with Reno and Rude…"

Cloud chose to take is as so, and yelled. "What?"

"Uhm…" Reeve cleared his throat. "Sorry. I know you don't like each other…"

Cloud sighed and clomped out the office, his boots leaving slightly muddy footprints behind them.

Before the door slammed behind him, Reeve noted that his boots were exactly the same as Sakura's had been, except hers were much older looking and worn out. Every second he was more and more sure of who she really was.

He turned back to the others. "Sorry. Astenje, could you please show them to their rooms?"

He flopped down at his desk. "I have so much work to do…"

He didn't even notice as they filedquietly out of his office, as he was fast asleep, random letters and numbers flicking across the screen where his face rested on the keyboard.

oOo

And Sakura sat in her room. Reeve had been kind enough to assign her one that she only had to share with one person… Marlene.

She wondered briefly if he'd guessed. She doubted it though…

oOo

_A/N: Well, there you go. The second chapter. I hope you liked it. I got two whole reviews for the last chapter (Not sarcasm. That's a lot, compared to my other chapter fic), so I decided to write another chapter and see if I can get even more reviews._

_But seriously folks, please review. I mean it, because this fic is riding on reviews and nothing else. I am writing my other fic for my little sister. This one has no real reason to exist other than if people here like it and review it._

_So review. It's not that hard. There's a little button in the corner there, press it, then all you have to do is write a few lines. You don't even have to log in if you don't want to : )_

_Thank you to the people who reviewed that last chapter; I really appreciate it._

_And one more thing: I updated this chapter really fast, but it probably won't happen again, because lots of stuff has started happening now, like our schoolwork has finally arrived, and I'm working on other projects. So, I don't have as much time as I would like to work on my fanfics._


	3. The Candle of Cosmo Canyon

_A/N: Well, chapter three... Cool. Anyway, have fun readng it. Thank you for the wonderful reviews!_

_Notes: I stole the juggling idea off Genn. Thanks Genn!_

There was one thing she remembered about Marlene, above and beyond anything else; She talked. And talked, and talked, and talked.

In fact, when she was happy, she never shut up.

Sakura lay with her face buried in her pillow, trying to block out the incessant noise.

The little girl rambled on and on, about her family, friends, school, what she'd done yesterday, and what she had for breakfast this morning.

"…Anne's Mum makes the BEST pancakes! I must have eaten a million of them!" She chirped happily. "And there was maple syrup! Maple syrup is soooo yum!"

"Is that so?" Sakura muttered through gritted teeth and her pillow.

"Yeah!" Marlene said, not taking the hint, "It's really rare down here! I heard everyone has it in season up round Gongaga because there are so many maple trees, but Papa says he never saw one while he was there."

Sakura ground her teeth together and wondered what would happen to her if Marlene were injured.

**Chapter Three: The Candle of Cosmo Canyon.**

_-Even the fire of hope can be doused-_

Sakura woke up late the next morning. Marlene was already gone- _thank gods-_ and she could hear the sounds of people moving about outside the room.

She rolled out of bed and landed in a mess of arms, legs and blankets on the floor with a painful thud.

She had just struggled out of the pile when someone knocked on the door. "Hang on!" She mumbled, and quickly pulled her rain cloak on. She'd slept in her clothes, because she didn't actually have anything else.

It was Reno. "The Boss wants to see you." He said cheerily. She was sure that Reno was only a morning person because it annoyed people.

"Ok."

"And he said to give you this." Reno handed her another cup of coffee.

"How old is it?" Sakura asked, taking the cup and glaring at it suspiciously.

"Dunno. But he found it on top of one of those huge filing cabinets."

"Oh well, whatever it is, down that hatch…" Sakura tipped her head back and downed the slightly goopy coffee.

She managed to look only slightly ill this time, until she reached the bathroom.

oOo

After that, she followed Reno to Reeve's office, where he was, as usual, trying desperately to keep up with paperwork.

"Ah! Sakura! I'm glad you're here, I wanted to ask you about something. Look at this…" He pushed a sheet of paper towards her. On it was a photo.

Of her bike.

"Hey! Where did you get this?" And more importantly, why was there another picture of Cloud's bike underneath it?

"Well, we questioned a few of the people from the Records building, and we found out that your motorbike had been destroyed. I sent Rude to retrieve it. When he came back he said that it looked a lot like Cloud's Fenrir, so we went and had a look…"

Sakura gulped.

"…And we noticed something very strange. It is the exact same make and model as Cloud Strife's, but with a few modifications. Johan tells me it is faster and runs on far less fuel. He said he has never seen anything like it.

_Of course he hasn't,_ Sakura thought bitterly, _he hasn't invented it yet._

Out loud, she said, "It's probably just a coincidence that we both have the same kind of motorbike. And I got it second hand, so I dunno about the modifications." _It was mostly true_, she thought slightly guiltily.

Reeve looked at her for a long time, then said; "Thank you Reno, you may leave."

Reno grumbled, then slammed the door behind him.

"And no listening through the door!" Reeve shouted after him. Then he looked back at Sakura. "Ok, tell me how you got here."

"I- I mean, by motorbike. Um."

"No, I mean how you got to this time. Marlene."

Sakura went bright red, then pale. "Um. I'm not entirely certain. We didn't bother learning how the machines worked, just how to use them. We left all the science type stuff up to Vincent and Johan.

"Ah. I see. Now you can tell me why you're here."

Sakura sighed. "There was only Vincent, Johan, Yuffie, Den, Junko and I left. We weren't going to be able to stop them. Johan found an old reference to a-"

"Den?"

"Denzel."

"And Junko?"

"Uhm… she was Wutain. Uh…" Mumbled Sakura quietly.

"I see. How did she come to know you?"

Sakura stayed silent.

"Alright then. What were you saying?"

"Johan found a mention of a theory for time travel, and they researched it, and eventually they made a way for us to go back in time. A small machine. It disintegrated when I got here though."

"How did it work?"

"It was just a small thing that looked like a cell phone. It needed a huge amount of energy to work though. We decided to break into one of the reopened Mako Reactors and sap energy from there. The day before we went in, Vincent was captured, and we don't know what happened to him. Yuffie went to look for him and never came back. Me, Johan, Junko and Den left the next day as planned to get to the Mako. On the way there Johan was shot, Junko stayed with him, and then when we were almost there, they got Denzel. I was the only one to make it to the center of the reactor."

"And then?"

"I connected the machine to one of the main outlets and pumped every drop of power I could into it until it zapped me to the time and place Vincent had programmed into it."

"And then we know the rest…"

"Yeah."

Suddenly Reeve didn't look like the boss anymore; he looked frightened. "We barely escaped death in the bombings. What's going to happen Marlene? Who are we facing? And what are they trying to do?"

"I can't tell you." Said Marlene. "Not yet."

Reeve nodded slowly. "Ok." He sighed, stood up and wandered over to one of the huge filing cabinets. "Do you want a false ID card or driver's license or anything?"

"Yes please. But NOT Sakura Kinomoto."

Reeve gave a halfhearted laugh. "Of course not. But then again, who doesn't want to be named for an annoying little girl with a winged staff?"

"Anyone but me, thank you."

"What'll it be then?"

"I'd better keep Sakura. What about Sakura Todd?"

Reeve's brow creased. "Todd? Isn't he the old man who…"

"Who died in the cemetery. The only person I didn't save. I didn't know anyone was there…" Sakura looked away.

"Marlene. You can't save everyone." Reeve said sadly. "I should know. I tried to save everyone in Midgar when Meteor, Lifestream, and Holy converged overhead. I failed. Miserably. I didn't even save half of them. But I had to live with that so I could help the ones that did survive. Do you understand?"

Sakura nodded, and wiped her eyes "Thanks Reeve." She stood up and handed the empty cup that had contained the ancient coffee Reno had given her. "Here. You can have this. I'm feeling kinda tired, so I'm gonna go back to…" She never finished her sentence, because at that point she blinked and collapsed into a neat pile on the floor.

"Sakura!" Reeve exclaimed and ran round his desk to see if she was alright. He sighed with relief; she was only sleeping.

He picked her up and placed her carefully on the couch, then left his office in search of one of the Turks.

He found Reno and Elena first. They were usually easiest to find, because Reno was possibly the only person in the world capable of making Elena angry, and when Elena was angry, she shouted at people.

Right now Elena was yelling something about paper planes.

When Reeve poked his head into the office they shared they paused their shouting match. "Hi Boss." Reno said, grinning sheepishly.

"Hey, I've got a job for one of you."

"I'll do it Sir." Elena said, her face red from the embarrassment of being caught arguing with Reno.

"Ok. Sakura fell asleep while I was talking to her. She hasn't slept much since before the bombings. Could you please get her to her room? I don't really want to be there when you wake her up…"

Elena nodded. She knew Reeve was capable of carrying her to her room himself, but he was rather old fashioned, and didn't like going into a woman's room without her permission.

"Hey, I'll come with!" Reno chirped.

Elena scowled. He was doing it to annoy her, she was certain of it. "Fine." She growled.

Reeve watched the two walk off down the corridor, still bickering quietly, and then padded into the office to see what the argument was about. 

There was a number of carefully made origami planes on Reno's desk. Reevedelicately unfolded one. The paper was covered in Elena's tiny, neat handwriting, and had been headed;'Damage Report, 21/3.'

Reeve groaned inwardly. He was willing to bet that Reno had used some of the paper in Elena's outbox to make these, because she wouldn't have kicked up such a fuss if it were scrap.

He unfolded the rest of them and somehow managed to fit them back into their intended order, smoothed the creases out of them, and put them back in the plastic bin on the desk.

Usually Elena and Reno didn't share an office, but the bunker was a lot smaller than the original ShinRa building.

oOo

Sakura wasn't going to wake up. They'd established that after about five minutes or poking her, calling her name, and Reno had even been brave enough to put his EMR on it's lowest setting and jab her on the shoulder with it.

She hadn't even moved, or mumbled in her sleep.

So in the end Elena told Reno to carry her to her room and went off to see where Reeve had gotten too.

oOo

Reno dumped Sakura on her bed then dragged the blanket off the other bed in the room to throw over her.

He was about to head out the door when Sakura's eyes slitted open and she said, "I'd ask what you were doing in here, but I probably don't want to know…"

Reno spun around and yelled, "Hey, you fell asleep in Reeve's office! I've just following orders!"

"Yeah, sure." Sakura stood up and looked round the room. "Jeez, now I have to make Marlene's bed again for her! Goddammit…"

"Uh… I'd better be going."

"Oh, hey wait!"

"Yeah?" Reno turned round and stood in the doorway.

"Can you do me a favor?"

"What is it?"

"When I got here, I left all my stuff in a hiding place near sector two. Can I borrow a car or something to get it back?"

"No. I'd get in trouble for letting you outta here."

"Please?"

"No."

"Then you come with."

"No."

"Why not?"

"Dun wanna."

Sakura narrowed her eyes at him. "I need my stuff back, and you're going to help me get it. I don't care how, but you are."

"Oh yeah? Make me." Reno countered.

"If you don't, I'll tell Reeve who broke his favorite coffee mug… you know, that one Elena got him for his birthday, with the neat little paintings of the birds on it…"

Reno want from pale to slightly green, then pale again, then white as a sheet. "You don't know that was me."

"Yes I do…"

"You can't! How would you know something like that? How _could_ you know something like that?"

"I'm psychic. And for the record, trying to teach Marlene to juggle with china cups wasn't the greatest idea you've ever had. Now go get a car."

Reno's face screwed up and he looked like a three year old about to throw a tantrum. "Fine! Just let me get my Turk-in-training…"

Sakura knew that Reno was the one who had trained Vaughn, and he was still on probation. Reno was probably making him come so the he wouldn't have to talk to her.

He would probably sulk and be sullen and moody for the rest of the day too.

oOo

Reno made Sakura and Vaughn sit in the back, and snapped at Vaughn when he asked why.

He broke a number of traffic laws, speed limits and ran a fair few red lights. He didn't even bother slowing down for speed bumps, and Sakura cursed the lack of seatbelts in the old Ute Reno had chosen (probably for this very reason) to bring.

This head long approach to driving resulted in an all-out shouting match between Reno and Vaughn, with Sakura yelling at Vaughn to sit down and Reno to keep his eyes on the road, and both of them yelling at her to shut up and stay out of it.

Finally they made it to sector two, and Reno stopped abruptly, causing Vaughn and Sakura to lurch forwards into the back of the front seats.

She left Vaughn and Reno to another shouting match and went off on her own down the back alleys and hidden passageways to where she had hidden the three bags she'd brought with her.

One was hers, and the other two belonged to _Junko and Johan, who had told her and Den to take them with when the loss of blood from the bullet wounds in Johan's arm and chest had caused him to collapse, and Junko had refused to leave him._

_Den hadn't had time to get his bag to her when he was shot, but he hadn't been carrying anything really important, except the keys for her motorbike, but she knew how to hotwire it._

_She still didn't know how Vincent had managed to get it to follow her back in time, but she was grateful that he had. _She never would have made it in time without it.

She grabbed the three heavygray canvasbags from their hiding place behind a stack of bins and started backtracking towards the Ute. Hopefully Reno and Vaughn had settled their differences by now, so she wouldn't have to listen to them bickering the whole way back, too.

When she got back though, they both started yelling at her for wandering off in the streets of Midgar on her own and for ditching them. She really wished she hadn't blackmailed Reno. The he wouldn't have been sulky, then Vaughn wouldn't have been grouchy, and then everything would have gone much smoother.

She should have just asked Elena or Vaughn to drive her out here.

Sighing, she climbed into the backseat and stuffed the three bags in between her and Vaughn. She didn't feel like talking to either of the Turks at the moment.

"Jeez, what the hell have you got in these? Lead bricks?" Vaughn demanded when Sakura shoved one of the bags too far and it landed on him.

"No, but there are quite a few weapons. And explosives. I thought I'd need them, but I'm just gonna give most of it to Reeve for whatever."

Vaughn's eyes went all sparkly when she mentioned explosives. "Can I have a look?"

"No." Sakura said, "You can look at them later, but don't go through my stuff. It's rude."

oOo

Somehow, they made it back to the ShinRa bunker in one piece, but when they arrived there was another surprise waiting for them.

"Tseng!" Reno shouted, running over to the man and wrapping his arms around him. "Old Boss!"

"Reno, let me go…"

"No way Old Boss! No until you say hullo!"

"Hullo." Tseng said flatly. "Oh, and hello Vaughn."

Vaughn was grinning widely as he walked through the door of the bunker, where Tseng had obviously been waiting for them to get back.

Reno let Tseng go and ran off down the corridor yelling, "Everyone! Tseng's back! Tseng's back!"

"You're Sakura, I suppose?" Tseng asked suddenly, noticing the woman hovering just outside the door.

She jumped, then nodded. "Yeah. Um, nice to meet you Tseng."

"So what are you doing back?" Vaughn asked. "You still have anotherfortnight off."

"I couldn't just sit around on a beach up near Wutai relaxing when I heard about this, could I? You were almost killed." He looked over at Sakura. "And I hear it's thanks to you that they are all alive?"

She looked down, embarrassed, and mumbled something.

"Well, thank you. I don't know what I would have done if anything were to happen to my Turks."

Sakura grinned sheepishly at him.

"Anyway, I need to talk to… Oh." Tseng had turned around, to see every Turk in the building heading towards him down the hallway, as well as Yuffie and Reeve.

Yuffie reached him first, what with the caffeine-hyped state she was in, and dive tackled him, yelling, "Cuz! How ya been?"

Sakura blinked. She hadn't known Tseng and Yuffie were cousins, but it did kind of make sense…

From the looks on some of the faces surrounding them, none of the Turks knew either.

Tseng pried Yuffie off him. "I'm fine, thank you. Yourself?"

"I'm good!"

"Great, listen, I'm glad to see you all, but I really need to talk to Reeve…"

Suddenly a huge shadow loomed over the crowd of Turks and said, "Everyone back to their rooms."

There was a sudden hurry to obey.

"Thank you Rude. Please tell them I'll come and talk to them all later, but this is urgent."

The huge man nodded his shaved head and moved off down the corridor behind the others.

Reeve and Tseng disappeared into Reeve's office, talking in low, hurried voices, and Sakura followed Vaughn and Yuffie towards the room at the far end of the bunker.

It held the TV and stereo system, among all the other junk the Turks had collected over the years to keep themselves busy; packs of cards, board games, and Elena had started collecting up books.

However, as she passed Reeve's office, hand shot out of the door and grabbed her by her hood, dragging her back inside.

"Urk!" She said.

"Do you know why this happened?" Reeve demanded.

"Wh-what?

Reeve and Tseng looked at each other.

"On my way here I stopped off at Cosmo Canyon to see if Nanaki knew of what was happening." Tseng explained, "He did, and he said he tried to get here to help out, but before he could arrange anything, something bad happened. The whole of Cosmo Canyon is in chaos." He paused.

"The Cosmo Candle has gone out." Sakura interrupted.


	4. Hard Learned Lessons

"…And I hung around on the beach a lot, visited some of my relatives, and not much else really." Tseng finished.

"How come your holidays are always so _boring_?" Reno grumbled.

"Because my job is so interesting."

"Then tell us about your job." Reno commanded. The Turks, plus Yuffie, had dragged Tseng into 'the cave', their name for the end room that held the TV and board games, and demanded he tell them all about his holiday.

"Ok then, fine. There was this one time when one of the Turks were ordered to find a man who had tried to kill the president. The Turk we sent after him followed him into a nightclub…" Tseng didn't get any further, as Reno had leapt forwards and clamped his hand over his mouth.

"Not this story, 'kay Boss?"

Tseng smiled. He knew exactly what stories to start in order to get out of storytelling.

**Chapter Four: Hard Learned Lessons**

_-No more if onlys-_

The ceiling wasn't very interesting. Not one bit. But Sakura was staring at it as if it was. Reeve half wanted to wave his hand in front of her face, but he resisted the temptation.

"How long has she been like this Marlene?"

"Ages! I woke up and left for food, and when I came back, she was just like that. She wouldn't answer me when I talked to her, so I came and got an adult, like Papa says to do if something's wrong. Reeve, is Sakura going to die? I should have come and found someone sooner!" The little girl's eyes started filling with tears.

"No Marlene. It's ok, you did good."

Marlene sniffled and wiped her eyes on her sleeve. "What's wrong with her then?"

"I think she's depressed. Sakura, are you listening?"

Sakura didn't even move.

"Marlene, can you go get Tifa or Elena?"

She nodded and scampered out the room.

Reeve knelt down beside Sakura's bed. "Sakura, listen to me. What's wrong?"

Sakura breathed out heavily and rolled her head slowly to look at him. "It didn't work out how it should have. I got it wrong. I could have stopped that from happening…"

"The Cosmo Candle? Is that what this is about?"

She nodded. "And you shouldn't have told Tseng."

"I had to. And he didn't look at me like I was insane, either."

"The Candle wasn't put out by some stupid traitor ninja for another two months. Why did it happen differently? It doesn't make sense."

"Traitor ninja?"

"A Wutain ninja went turncoat and sneaked into Cosmo Canyon with a bucket of some kind of powder that smothers fires. Can't remember what it was called. Eventually he was caught, but not for another two years or so."

"Oh."

"I don't get it! How could the past _change_?"

"Sakura… You changed something very big. Maybe whoever is behind it all is doing things differently because we all survived. Speeding things up."

Reeve could practically see the woman's thoughts passing over her face. Annoyance, surprise, anger, fear, horror. "No way. But- but then I'd be… useless. If that's what's happened… I can't help anymore. I- I came back to help you all and now I can't help anymore…"

"That's not true. You can still be helpful, considering you managed to get passed security at the old ShinRa building. And you may not know when and what events are going to happen anymore, but you still have a rough idea of what's happening."

"Really?"

"Sure. Come on. You need food. You're all pale."

"Thanks…"

"Reeve! I got Tifa!" Marlene yelled, bursting through the door, the tall brown haired woman not far behind.

"Thank you Marlene, although I'm not sure we need her anymore." He looked up at Tifa. "Thank you for coming, I thought Sakura was upset over something, and you're better at that sort of thing than me, but she's ok now."

"I was just tired. Sorry for worrying you."

"No harm done, and it's better safe than sorry, right?" Tifa grinned at her. "Although you look like you could definitely use some food."

"Heh, that's what he said. I suppose I am kinda hungry." Sakura sighed and stood up from her bed. "Thanks…"

oOo

In truth, Sakura still didn't feel much better. She'd only gotten through Reeve's security because she had figured out the best way through it weeks ago- or fourteen years in the future, depending on how you looked at it.

And while she did have a rather well covered knowledge of many martial arts and how to use a number of weapons, she really just wasn't a natural at fighting. Ok, she could beat up your average street thug, but up against a real fighter she was doomed.

About the only things she was good at without months and months of training and practice was cooking, a totally useless skill when you were in a resistance, and riding motorbikes.

Ok, maybe riding was useful. She could get around quickly. But she wasn't near as good as Cloud. She'd seen him fighting someone while both were riding full speed along some back road near Kalm on their motorbikes. _That_ was impressive.

She sighed and put her head down on the table beside her food tray. Maybe she should tell Marlene to ask Yuffie to train her in some form of fighting now, so she doesn't have to learn when she's fifteen like I did. She wished she'd thought of that when she was the young one. Gods knew she needed the head start.

And then people started filing into the dining room for morning tea, mostly so intent on getting their food that they failed to notice Sakura hurriedly sitting up and pulling her tray of food towards her.

oOo

It was foolish to leave the bunker on his own and without telling anyone that he was going, and Reno knew that, but then, Reno was a very foolish person sometimes. Anyway, his trip to the store was mostly uneventful, except for this nagging feeling that someone was watching him.

The trip back was different though. As he walked past one of the many alleyways on the way back to the bunker, a six pack of beer swinging from one hand, he heard someone calling his name. It sounded like… "Cloud?" He asked, peering into the darkness.

There was no reply. Frowning, Reno stepped into the alley… and something hit him hard on the back of the head. He stumbled forwards then regained his footing, reaching into his jacket for his gun, and spun…

"Cloud!" he gasped. He knew Cloud didn't like him, but… "That's not funny man. You made me drop my beer."

The man grinned nastily at him, and Reno suddenly realized the only way out the alley was through him. "Come on man, move, I want to get back."

And then Cloud rushed at him, pulling a tazer out of his pocket. Reno yelled and dodged to the side, sticking his foot out to trip the man as he went past. He fell with a heavy thud, and Reno trod heavily on the back of his knee to slow him down. Then he ran.

He didn't stop or look back until he made it to the bunker, not even stopping to pick his discarded beer up on his way out the alley.

oOo

"_Where the bloody hell is Cloud_?"

Three startled faces looked up at Reno, who was standing, gasping for breath, in the doorway.

"He went out a while ago to talk to Cid." Tifa said eventually.

"The _bastard_!" Reno exclaimed, before turning and running back out of the small kitchen.

"What's wrong with him?" Tifa asked.

Elena shrugged. "You know they don't like each other. Probably just some stupid argument."

"Yeah." Tifa looked down at Marlene, who had demanded the two women help her make cookies. "Don't you go around repeating that word Reno called Cloud, either."

"Alright Tifa."

oOo

"Boss! Cloud's gone mental!"

Reeve spun his chair around to face Reno. "I highly doubt it."

"He has! I went out to get some beer, and he jumped me in an alley! He tried to kill me!"

Reeve frowned. "Reno, think about what you're saying. These are serious accusations and, quite frankly, I don't think Cloud would do that."

"He did! I'm not lying Boss, you've gotta believe me! He had a tazer!"

"Where would he get a tazer?"

"I… I don't know."

They both jumped when the door suddenly burst open again. "It wasn't Cloud!"

"Sakura?" Reeve asked. "What do you mean?"

"Yeah! What the hell is going on?" Reno demanded.

"It wasn't Cloud." She repeated, gulping down air, trying to get her breath back.

"You said that already." Snapped Reno.

"Yeah, sorry, um. Hang on a moment." She flopped down in the couch and shut her eyes for a few seconds. "Tifa told me you'd been looking for Cloud earlier, so I figured you must have been attacked."

"Yeah."

"It wasn't Cloud who attacked you, it was a… a…" she waved her hands around vaguely, trying to think of the word Vincent had used to describe them when they'd finally figured it out themselves, "A clone, I guess. There's a scientific term for them, but I can't remember it."

Reeve's eyebrows shot up.

"A clone? Yeah, right." Reno said.

"See? This is why I didn't want to tell you what you were up against. You'd never believe me if I had said 'yourselves'."

"Wait, there are more of them then?"

"So you _do_ believe me?"

"We've seen clones before." Reno said.

"Although they weren't very good ones." Reeve added.

"Well these are very good clones. Except they aren't actually good. They do whatever they're told."

"By whom?"

"Well… we never actually found out. All we know is that there's someone pulling the strings."

"Wait, wait," Reno interrupted, "if we're up against clones… is there a Reno clone?"

"Yes. I've seen him a couple of times."

"Oh no," he moaned, "What if I end up fighting him? Would I win?"

"I don't know. You were dead last time we went through this."

And then Reno paused. "_What_ did you say? And for that matter, how _exactly_ do you _know_ all this?"

Sakura and Reeve looked at each other. "I suppose I'd better tell him," she said.

"What? Tell me _what_?"

So Sakura explained to him where she'd come from and who she was.

It took a long time.

oOo

"Cloud, you're back! Reno was looking for you. Have you done anything to upset him?"

Cloud looked puzzled at Tifa's question. "Not that I know of. Why?"

"He was using some rather colorful language."

"More so than usual, you mean?"

"Yeah."

The man sighed and ran his hand through his spiky blonde hair. "I'll go find out what's wrong."

When he found Reno, however, the Turk was staring into space with a strange expression on his face. "Reno?" There was no reply. "Reno!"

Reno jerked out of his reverie and spun around. Cloud suddenly found himself staring down at the business end of Reno's EMR. "Hey, hey!" he held his hands up in a gesture of peace.

Reno sighed and lowered his arm. "Sorry man, you scared me."

"_I_ scared _you_?"

"Uh… no, I wasn't scared." Reno said hurriedly.

"Whatever. Tifa said you were looking for me?"

"Was I? Oh yeah! I was. Never mind, it doesn't matter."

"Tifa said you sounded pretty angry."

"Er, yeah… mistaken identity, 'kay? Now piss off, I'm busy."

"With what? Counting the tiles on the ceiling?" Cloud asked scathingly.

Reno scowled. "I'm trying to work something out."

Cloud shrugged and started to walk away, then he paused. He'd always hated Reno, but after being stuck in this bunker with him for the past few days he was starting to realize that he was _mostly_ a nice person. Maybe he should try setting their differences aside and get to know him better…

Reno was surprised when Cloud came back and sat down beside him. "Can I help? I'm good at puzzles." He paused. "Well, some puzzles."

The Turk considered his offer for a few seconds, then said, "Nah." Cloud suddenly looked hurt, and Reno realized he had been trying to be nice. "Er, it's nothing personal, it's just that if I told you, you'd laugh."

"Oh, ok." Cloud tapped his fingers on the table for a few seconds uncomfortably, then stopped. "It's not that word game that Denzel and Marlene found on that cereal box this morning is it?"

"No! It's not really a puzzle, ok? If you want to know, ask Sakura."

At the mention of Sakura's name, Cloud's face closed up and went expressionless.

"What? What's wrong?"

"I don't like her."

For some reason Reno found this hilarious. "Oh man, that's rich."

Cloud scowled at Reno. "I don't see anything funny about it. She knows too much and won't tell us how. There's something fishy about her."

Reno managed to stop laughing for long enough to say, "She's more trustworthy than I am… trust me on this." Then started laughing again.

"…Right…" Cloud got up and left, looking over his shoulder a couple of times, perhaps to make sure Reno wasn't following him.

oOo

A/N: Sorry this chapter took me so long to write! I've started about fifty other things and now I'm trying desperately to keep up with them all xD

Please review!


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